A former teacher who had been arrested in relation to historic child sex offences at a former boarding school suffocated himself before charges could be brought against him.

John Stagg, 65, a former teacher at Elmbridge boarding school in Fyfield, Ongar, was arrested on October 28, 2015, before a file was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service for a decision on charging Stagg with five counts of buggery and eight counts of indecent assault.

Read More

While a decision was being made to charge Stagg, who had changed his name to John Davison, he was found dead at his address in Upminster on December 7, 2016, with a bag secured around his head.

The former music teacher, of Brambles Lane who also had high levels of codeine, antihistamine and paracetamol in his blood, had previously sent a letter to a friend warning them of his intentions to kill himself.

Stagg had already been jailed for two-and-a-half years for seducing and sexually abusing his teenage pupils at one of Birmingham’s top grammar schools in 1998.

He taught at King Edward VI School for Boys in Aston and encouraged his victims to come back to his flat in Erdington where he plied them with drink and drugs and showed pornographic videos.